Reddit mentions: The best almanacs & yearbooks

Here's some reading material that you might find interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/FreeDarko-Presents-Macrophenomenal-Basketball-Almanac/dp/1596915617/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1301638666&sr=8-1

Appreciating good basketball is important, but it's the art of the game, and really that of any pro sports, which makes it worth watching. Part of the art of the game are the storylines that unfold in sports.

As a Bulls/Packers fan I have been pretty blessed as far as the art and story of the game go with the GOAT in Michael Jordan, a guy that appears to be an all time great in Aaron Rodgers, Super Bowl wins, great playoff series like Bulls vs. Celtics 2009, etc.

It's something that is hard to explain, but the art, story, and the entertainment it provides is something great that comes from sports, and should not be denied to just viewing the game from a purely practical standpoint.

First of all, you need to invest in a copy of the Writer's and Artist's Yearbook.

The section for illustrators is very small, but contains excellent advice. It also contains a comprehensive list, with contact details, of all UK press and broadcast media. This is it's real strength.

It also contains advice regarding getting an agent (a good idea if you want to make a living out of illustration), what you can expect from them etc. It is the bible for self-employed or freelance commercial artists and writers. Well worth £15 or so.

I can't recommend an industry body to you, as I'm not an illustrator. But I can give you an example of a similar organisation to which I belong, which is the Society of Authors. I don't know if you'd be eligible for membership as an illustrator, but if you can find a similar, respectable organisation, I'd recommend it.

The W&A Yearbook should also contain a list of stock image libraries, although you can search for these online easily. Consider the type of work they do and perhaps, when you have little commissioned work on, maybe create images for a stock library. Most do not pay up front, but you will receive usage fees should they be licensed by a client.

Also, there is a W&A yearbook for children's publications. You shouldn't ignore this market. Children's publications consume a lot of illustration, as I'm sure you can imagine.

One really great place to start is the FreeDarko books--the first one is a history of the sport, which is a hell of a lot more interesting than you'd expect. The other book is a look at some of the greatest players of all time. Both these books are beautifully illustrated and have a totally unique take on basketball you won't find anywhere else.

As for being a Wolves fan, the SBNation blog is Canis Hoopus, which has a ton of really bright fans who keep up an active community and great game threads. Some other Wolves blogs:

http://www.awolfamongwolves.com/
http://www.thedailywolf.com/
www.punchdrunkwolves.com

This book is super entertaining, though a little outdated. The awesome illustrations make it worth it, so I recommend it. Good book to open to a page and leave on a shelf to add that basketball ambiance.

Ah, that's a shame. I only started in my 20s, so the stuff I've written is all great memories. Also, the journal that I use (from the London Science Museum) only has about 3 sentences of space for each day, so it only allows me to capture the most essential moments and feelings. You should try again - it's very rewarding! Here is the one I use, if you're interested. It has a beautiful aesthetic with images of old scientific instruments and illustrations.

You could do worse than picking up a copy of this. I haven't read a copy in a good few years, but it used to have a pretty exhaustive list of literary agents included - many of whom represent screenwriters.

In the meantime, have you looked into local funding agencies? Creative England are a good jumping off point for seeking out things like development funding or networking - there used to be more localised regional screen agencies, but most have now been folded into CE.

FreeDarko Presents: The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac: Styles, Stats, and Stars in Today's Game

FreeDarko Presents: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History

Both were forerunners to the type of books Shea and Goldsberry wrote. Long form essays, an attempt to apply a taxonomy to great players, and awesome art. Also some irreverent humor.

FreeDarko's Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac: Styles, Stats and Stars in Today's Game has an amazing section on Sheed. They post his stats before/after getting teched up, and they're astounding.

Goes from being really good to basically being one of the best big men of all time.

In England we have a book called The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook which lists every agent and publisher, what sort of books they take on, their contact details etc. It is also full of advice on how to get published from both industry professionals and authors. There's a version for children's writers too. I'm not sure what country you're in, but even if it's not relevant to you I think you'd find the advice very valuable. :)

Earth rotates (nearly) freely in space around a principal axis of rotation which, as you say, we know as the north-south axis. If you were to apply some torque to the Earth to change that, the rotation would change to some other axis. In other words, you wouldn't really see any more complicated behaviour than today, just a different axis, and there would be new "north" and "south" poles.

That's the boring answer. Now for something slightly more interesting.

Now as it happens the Earth does actually not rotate freely. It is subject primarily to tidal forces from the Moon and the Sun, but also a few others. This causes the axis of rotation to change over a period of roughly 26,000 years, an effect known as axial precession or precession of the equinoxes. The apparent north pole, currently in the vicinity of the star Polaris, will trace a circle over 26,000 years. The center point of that circle is the "orbital" north pole, i.e. the axis around which the Earth orbits (not rotates). This looks similar to how a spinning top sometimes slowly spins around its own axis of rotation, if you set it spinning with a slight tilt on a surface.

There are other changes to Earth's rotation too, they are called nutation, the principal effect of which varies over about an 18 year period.

So yes, it is possible to have such complicated rotation and in fact it already happens. However I do not wish to speculate on how exactly precession and nutation would look like if you modified the Earth's primary axis of rotation and/or angular momentum.

Source: Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac.

Start with The Art of a Beautiful Game by SI's Chris Ballard. It will make you fall in love.

I also recommend both the books from FreeDarko collective (buy them in hardcover for the fantastic artwork).

• Undisputed guide to pro basketball history
  
• The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac
  
  I started with The Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam because literally everyone recommends it, but I found it dry like a boring history textbook or a Wikipedia entry on the Blazers.

Well, solidify the idea you want to convey first, then, make a map or something so you can travel through all those characters you like to create, place them, on the stories, fiction, non-fiction, western, drama, etc, etc,
some things that may help you:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Fiction-Writers-Readers/dp/0452281547

http://www.amazon.com/On-Becoming-Novelist-John-Gardner-ebook/dp/B00AB7NYZU

http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Journey-Structure-Edition/dp/193290736X

If the characters wake up with an astronautical book or data base, then the positions of the moon and planets would be the best bet for telling the date and location. The stars would give them only the latitude, not the longitude. Although the astro almanac is recalculated for each year, it should be accurate enough to project the equations a few hundred years into the future. If you need a few thousand years, then you need a long-term epidermis, like JPL DE431 (covers years 13201 BC to AD 17191). Of course, you need a computer to run it on.

https://www.amazon.com/Explanatory-Supplement-Astronomical-Almanac-Urban/dp/1891389858

https://www.amazon.com/Astronomical-Almanac-Year-Nautical-Office/dp/0707741920/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=XRMFS7E3NGSC2CT46FQC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_Propulsion_Laboratory_Development_Ephemeris

I'm also trying to get into fantasy modeling.

From my personal research these might be a few good resources:

https://www.amazon.com/Basketball-Analytics-Objective-Strategies-Understanding/dp/1492923176/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1482810850&sr=8-2&keywords=basketball+on+paper

https://www.amazon.com/Pro-Basketball-Forecast-John-Hollinger/dp/1574889621

Also, there is interesting stuff put out by the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference each year.

DM me, I'm curious about your background and experience. Maybe we can collaborate.

Leslie Patricelli's Potty book was a favorite, as well as Mercer Mayer's The New Potty (from the Little Critter series).

For the second grader, Captain Underpants, Bone, or no, wait, a copy of The Guinness Book of World Records is always a HUGE hit for second-fourth grade boys.

My favorite: Facts About the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages, Past and Present (almost 900 pages): https://www.amazon.com/Facts-About-Worlds-Languages-Encyclopedia/dp/0824209702

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1000 languages (very nice, very underrated for some reason): https://www.amazon.com/One-Thousand-Languages-Living-Endangered/dp/0520255607

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Dictionary of Languages: The Definitive Reference to More than 400 Languages https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Languages-Definitive-Reference-More/dp/0231115695

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Compendium of the World's Languages (1700 pages) https://www.amazon.com/Compendium-Worlds-Languages-George-Campbell-ebook/dp/B00E5CIHRC

You can get an older addition much cheaper that comes in two separate volumes. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415029376

Concise Version: https://www.amazon.com/Concise-Compendium-Worlds-Languages-Campbell/dp/041511392X

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The World's Major Languages https://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Major-Languages-Bernard-Comrie/dp/0195065115

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Languages of the World: An Introduction https://www.amazon.com/Languages-World-Introduction-Asya-Pereltsvaig/dp/1316621960

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The Languages of the World https://www.amazon.com/Languages-World-Kenneth-Katzner-ebook/dp/B000FBFFKE

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World's Chief Languages https://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Chief-Languages-Mario-Pei/dp/0913298077

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I bought his 2017 calendar and it's quite possibly the best purchase I have made all year.

The first paragraph: "Toronto, with a population of 2.79 million people (5.5 million in the GTA - Greater Toronto Area) is heralded as one of the most multicultural cities in the world and is ranked as the safest large metropolitan area in North America by Places Rated Almanac."

Link to Places Rated Almanac: https://www.amazon.ca/Places-Rated-Almanac-Classic-Finding/dp/0979319900

Places Rated Almanac: The Classic Guide for Finding Your Best Places to Live in America

I like the type of star guide that gives you month by month charts like this one.

Unsolicited recommendations:

The Art of a Beautiful Game by Chris Ballard

FreeDarko Presents: The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac

"The Detroit Almanac" the Free Press made for the tricentennial back in 2001

https://www.amazon.com/Detroit-Almanac-Peter-Gavrilovich/dp/0937247340

What is my favorite book?

If i have to pick just one:

http://www.amazon.com/World-Almanac-Book-Facts-2015/dp/1600571905/ref=cm_wl_huc_item

The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook is a good summary of the UK market.

Where did you get that? Is that from a FreeDarko publication or something? (FreeDarko is an old basketball blog.) It looks like something that could come out of this book I have by the FreeDarko writers.

The sun's position in the sky is constantly changing, including its declination (latitude). Every year navigators buy themselves a new Nautical Almanac which allows them to work out the sun's declination at any time during the year to the nearest 600th part of a degree (tenth of an arc-minute). In turn this allows them to determine latitude to the nearest tenth of a nautical mile, though difficulties in observation and other sources of error mean that being within half a nautical mile is good work.

Once you have the sun's noon (maximum) altitude in degrees above the horizon (corrected for several sources of error) and you've worked out the sun's declination at the instant of that observation (using the Almanac), working out your latitude is not much more than subtraction. You have to be careful about whether the sun's declination is north or south and whether you are north or south of the equator, but it's no harder than keeping track of plus and minus signs during any arithmetic. No trigonometry is required here.

Longitude from noon sights comes from working out what time of day the sun was highest. You have to stand there with the sextant for several minutes watching the sun go up and then down. You might take several timed readings and later work out when you think it reached its highest altitude. This time, plus the sun's longitude (SHA from the Almanac) give you your longitude. At the equator four seconds corresponds to a nautical mile so it's challenging to be more precise than that.

See this sample spread giving the position of the sun, moon and planets every hour for a three-day period. There are further tables at the back of the Almanac that make it easy to interpolate the figures to come up with an accurate position for any time during the hour.

>Anyone know who specifically who asked for the segment to be pulled?

My guess would be that the decision was made by the entire board of directors: Jeffrey R. Immelt, James I. Cash, Jr., William Castell LVO, Dennis D. Dammerman, Ann M. Fudge, Claudio X. Gonzalez, Andrea Jung, A.G. Lafley, Rochelle B. Lazarus, Sam Nunn, Roger S. Penske, Robert J. Swieringa, Douglas A. Warner III, Robert C. Wright.

Check out this list of what the top 10 media companies own and who is on the board of directors for each of them. The Project Censored 1997 book had this list published with octopus-style corporate logos much like what you see in the video.

I got Lonely Planet's Where to Go When in hardcover for myself, and I always see people rifle through it: https://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Planets-Where-Go-When-ebook/dp/B01MCZ9PRP/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542663231&sr=8-1&keywords=where+to+travel+when

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Have you tried home automation things for your in-laws? Maybe switches they can control on their own in their house, or a Rachio smart sprinkler system or a Nest thermostat?

Search for stade francais rugby calender, it's not bad

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/2918504076/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile

Buy this http://www.amazon.com/dp/1408157497